| WORSHIPPERS in Rwanda were so alarmed at the massive earthquake that shook their church in Butare on Sunday that they thought it could be a sign of the return of Christ. They escaped injury. At the same time, however, to the west, in a church in Shangi, Cyangugu, ten people were killed by the earthquake when roof timbers crashed on their heads.
The quake, whose epicentre was across the border in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), near the provincial capital Bukavu, measured 6.1 on the Richter scale. It struck at 7.35 a.m., the UN said. But Christians felt it at 9.30, as they went to church. The news agency AFP reported that at least 43 people were killed, and more than 450 injured in Rwanda and the DRC.
The Revd David Nahayo, an Anglican priest on the staff of the cathedral in Butare, emailed Canon David Winter in Berkshire on Monday to describe the damage. “Yesterday, the whole country of Rwanda experienced a very strong earthquake. Even though we felt it in Butare just as people were entering the church at 9.30, no damage was done, neither in the church nor to any home, as far as we know locally.
“However, our friends in Cyangugu were greatly affected, the number of deaths is up to 39, and injuries are over 450. Serious cases were flown into Kigali hospitals with helicopters,” he wrote. “In DRC it is even worse. We hear of 200 dead and many houses collapsed. Would we say, are these the signs of the coming back of Jesus, as most people were saying yesterday after church? Surely his coming is near. But some phenomena do happen when they happen, not necessarily being God’s signs. Yet let us be aware.”
An agency described the scene inside the church in Shangi. “We felt heavy shaking. Part of the roof timbers fell on the women’s side, and I was hit on the chest and head,” said Dative Mukanyhita, aged 20.
The report sketched “the cries, the incomprehension, and the clamour of the wooden beams engulfing the congregation”. Ms Mukanyhita’s brother, seated in the men’s section, was left unscathed. “Praise be to God,” she said, although her face was swollen and partly covered by bandages. “It was the parishioners who got me out of the rubble. Then the Red Cross arrived.”
On Tuesday, the UN said that it was distributing emergency relief supplies — including food, tents, and surgical kits — to thousands of people living in the east of the DRC. Parts of Burundi were also affected, and the region was shaken by aftershocks.
Nearly 100 buildings collapsed in Bukavu, DRC, near the epicentre, and more than 800 were rendered uninhabitable. Schools, churches, and a hospital were also damaged in Kabare and Katana, the UN said.
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